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Telecommunications company set to become part of BTR Park

contact: Cheryl RolandOctober 4, 2012 | WMU News

KALAMAZOO—Lynx Network Group, a company that has been tapped to build a fiber optic network to serve rural Michigan, has committed to becoming the newest corporate partner in Western Michigan University's Business Technology and Research Park.

Later this fall, the company will be settling into office space that is currently being finished to accommodate its needs in the F & V Engineering and Technology Center at 4798 Campus Drive, near the entrance to the BTR Park.

Lynx, which was hailed by Southwest Michigan First in 2010 as a Catalyst Award winner, was founded in 2003. It currently is a member of Southwest Michigan First's Council of 100. Earlier this year, Lynx also was named one of the "50 Michigan Companies to Watch" during the eighth annual Michigan Celebrates Small Business event in Lansing.

According to Greg Rutgers, company co-founder, the new site will "establish a foundation to support our growing staff and bring all of our employees together from locations across the state, as well as from around the West Michigan area."

Lynx has doubled its staff in the past 18 months, and by the end of 2014, Rutgers expects that number to more than double again. "The time is right to bring everyone together and take advantage of some of the synergy we miss by working in separate locations," he says.

Lynx Network Group

Lynx is completing construction on more than 1,500 miles of a state-of-the-art fiber optics network that will be capable of delivering the types of services increasingly called for by business, schools, government and wholesale customers, especially wireless operators.

"In addition to extremely high-capacity Ethernet services, we're able to satisfy all the requirements that are essential for competitive 4G/LTE mobile and wireless tower backhaul offerings. These capabilities will allow us to deliver services to rural unserved and underserved areas previously available only in more densely populated urban markets in Michigan," Rutgers says. He notes the majority of the network is scheduled for completion at the end of this year, while a second phase will be completed in August 2013.

"We'll have virtually unlimited capacity to offer at a competitive price," he says. "We expect to have a positive economic impact in Michigan by providing Michigan companies with the broadband access they need to compete on a global scale."

The recent Lynx market expansion has been funded in part by Plymouth Ventures, a Michigan-based growth-stage venture capital firm.

"The new Lynx location on the WMU campus will offer the company a strategic advantage," Rutgers says. Possible research collaborations and equipment testing are the kinds of projects on which Lynx network professionals hope to collaborate with WMU faculty and students in such programs as computer information systems and telecommunications and information management.

Lynx becomes the 38th corporate partner in WMU's BTR Park. Launched in 2000, the BTR Park is part of the University's Parkview Campus. It is adjacent to the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and includes high-tech companies focused on advanced engineering, life sciences and/or information technology.